From Conceptualism to Feminism: Lucy Lippard’s Numbers Shows 1969–74

With a main essay by Cornelia Butler and including 140 black-and-white images. Additional contributions by Pip Day and Sabeth Buchmann, interviews with Lucy Lippard and Seth Siegelaub, archival texts by Peter Plagens, Griselda Pollock and Caroline Tisdall and interviews with artists Eleanor Antin, Agnes Denes, Alice Aycock and Mierle Laderman Ukeles.

Four exhibitions of contemporary art curated by Lucy Lippard have become known as her 'numbers shows'. Each took the population of the city in which it was shown as its title: ‘557,087’ in Seattle, ‘955,000’ in Vancouver, ‘2,972,453’ in Buenos Aires and ‘c.7,500’ in Valencia, California, before touring the US and to London. This third title in the Exhibition Histories series examines the numbers shows and follows Lippard’s trajectory as critic and curator, tracing her growing political engagement and involvement with feminism. Extensive archival material is complemented by a new essay by Cornelia Butler and interviews with Lippard, Seth Siegelaub and exhibiting artists as well as critical responses written at the time by Peter Plagens and Griselda Pollock. The volume also includes an essay by Pip Day analysing artists’ initiatives in Argentina as a context for Lippard’s emerging political consciousness.

The Exhibition Histories series investigates exhibitions that have shaped the way contemporary art is experienced, made and discussed.

Published by Afterall Books in association with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College; and Van Abbemuseum, 2012. Distributed by Koenig Books and ARTBOOK | D.A.P.

Related Features

Events

We are pleased to announce the Vancouver Art Gallery
launch for From
Conceptualism to Feminism: Lucy Lippard’s Numbers Shows
1969–74the most recent addition to
our Exhibition Historiesseries of
books and 4,492,040, a facsimile
reprint of the card catalogues produced by Lippard in the late
1960s and early 70s. On Tuesday 8 January, contributing
author Cornelia Butler and curator Grant Arnold will discuss Lucy
Lippard’s 'numbers shows' and their accompanying card
catalogues.

Events

We are pleased to announce the second in our series of talks analysing and contextualising exhibitions through the personal accounts of the curators responsible, co-organised with the Whitechapel Gallery in London. On Thursday 11 April 2013 Lucy Lippard will be in conversation with Afterall’s Lucy Steeds.

Online

Afterall pays homage to Seth Siegelaub by making available online a conversation between Jo Melvin and Seth Siegelaub, originally published in the Exhibition Histories book on Lucy Lippard’s ‘numbers shows’.